Sweet Dreams
by i AM the Random Idiot
Summary: Oneshot, Replicacentric.  [contest fic for xxlovelycollision]  Everybody’s looking for something.  Why not you?


**Sweet Dreams**

One-shot, Replica-centric. (contest fic for xxlovelycollision) Everybody's looking for something. Why not you?

A/N: I've never entered a contest before. Wish me luckz. This is for **xxlovelycollision**'s eighties song contest. The inspiring song is "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)" by the Eurhythmics.

Disclaimer: KH is owned by Squeenix and Disney. The song lyrics are owned by the Eurhythmics.

* * *

**--(sweet dreams are made of this)--**

You curl up outside Naminé's room, ready in case someone should try to disturb her while she sleeps. "You know," she says, before you close the door, "you should try to get some rest yourself."

"I'll be fine," you assure her.

She smiles. "Sweet dreams, then," she wishes you, as if she already knows that you might drop off at any moment, and closes the white door silently.

"Yeah," you reflexively respond.

You've never bothered to tell her that you can't dream.

**--(who am I to disagree?)--**

Vexen is talking furiously with Zexion. You know they're talking about you, but you don't dare speak up.

You know they mean to send you to fight Sora, away from Naminé, and you say nothing.

Who would listen to you anyway?

**--(I travel the world, and the seven seas)--**

"Naminé, have you ever wondered what's outside this castle?" you ask, pulling back the window curtain and taking a look.

She ducks her head slightly. "...A little," she admits in a tiny voice. Her shoulders hunch, as if she expects to be hit for such a bold statement. It hurts you slightly to see her so scared.

"Well, then," you whisper conspiratorially, kneeling in front of her chair and tilting her chin up with two fingers, "let's go! What's to keep us here? I'll protect you from whatever's out there."

Naminé hunches even more. "It's not what's out _there_," she hisses even more quietly, and with an air of faint desperation.

"Well, _well_, what's this I hear?" comes a voice from the doorway, and you turn to see Larxene grinning. "We can't have thoughts like _that_, now _can_ we, my dear little memory witch?"

"Don't talk to her like that," you snap, rising to your feet, but she clenches a fist and lightning-tipped kunai sprout in her hand.

"You have a choice. Either _you_ keep such nasty sentiments out of his head," Larxene says to Naminé, brandishing her kunai and smiling ferally, "or I _beat_ them out."

You go for your sword, but Naminé grabs your arm and frantically gasps, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry for this!" and all of a sudden a flash of white muffled starlight obliteration, and...what was it you'd said in the first place?

**--(everybody's looking for something)--**

"Riku..." Sora implores you, as you feel the chill bite of the darkness seeping into your muscles, readying you for battle.

"Go home, Sora," you answer. "I can take care of Naminé. Anyone who goes near Naminé...goes through me!" You lash out at him, and he barely catches your blade on his own.

He's going to learn what true abandonment is like.

**--(some of them want to use you)--**

"We could remake his heart to be just like the real Riku," Larxene suggests to Vexen.

"What?" you gasp, shooting to your feet. What did you do wrong? What right have they to change what you are?

Every right. Because what you are is a tool.

**--(some of them want to be used by you)--**

"_Here," Naminé whispered in your ear, gently placing a glittery gold star keychain in your hand. "It's my lucky charm. It'll keep you safe."_

_You smiled and put it in your pocket. "Don't worry about me, Naminé. I'll be the one keeping you safe."_

You gently rub her lucky charm, and gaze at the glitter that has come off on your thumb. If only the confusion that coats your heart were rubbed off so easily.

**--(some of them want to abuse you)--**

The Real Thing's blade comes down on your own with the weight of what seems like the force of pure hated conviction itself. "I will _never_ be like you!" he shouts, seemingly as much to convince himself as you, and disengages your swords with a jarring shriek of steel.

You bite back an obscenity at the thought that he even beat you to voicing your own sentiment.

**--(some of them want to be abused)--**

Gently, you bandage the shallow gash on Naminé's left forearm. "Naminé," you ask, "who did this to you?" She shakes her head, and says nothing. You silently hate yourself for not being around to keep her from getting hurt, and you suspect Larxene is involved. "Naminé, please."

"Don't," she whispers. "It's okay."

"I promised to protect you, Naminé. It's not okay."

"Please..." she begs, tears filling her eyes. "Don't do so much for me. I don't' des—"

"Naminé," you state firmly. "Of course you do."

Liquid diamond gems course down her cheeks as she buries her face in your hair and cries.

**--(hold your head up)--**

Something as cold and sharp as betrayal shatters your heart to pieces in your chest. But you'll hold them together until they heal back, because you remember her tears when she wouldn't tell you that she couldn't love you.

**--(keep your head up)--**

Unforgiving steel bleeds your life out before you. In his eyes, you see the reflection of the light leaving yours.

**--(moving on)--**

Where will you go when you are gone? You don't know. Maybe it will be like sleeping. Maybe it will be better.

As the black drips down behind your eyes, you recall something she once said to you, and you smile a little.

_Sweet dreams._

* * *

A/N: Blargh. I like this pairing, but I'm never original enough to make it fresh and new. Phailed. 


End file.
